Mail me any questions about 3D animation. I usually use Maya and 3D Studio MAX when animating. I'm currently working on some animations for Target Games and their upcoming game "Europa Universalis". Check it out: http://target.se/iahttp://go.to/penk

$7500 and I can get you a copy of Maya 2.0 Complete from my local reseller. Maya is a very tough app to learn especially if you really don't have much experience with other 3D software. I've been using Maya for well over a year now and I'm still not up to speed on some things. Maya does so many things that it's overwhelming, but I just focused on one specific area at a time (mainly animation). Animating in Maya is great. Setting up your limits and IK is very easy and they actually work like they should. Things that used to only be done with expressions can now be done with Maya's set driven key (one of it's best features), but you should still learn how to write some mel script.

Heh, $7500 I'm sure I can find a copy for like $0. Much like I did Photoshop 5.5, Premiere 5.1, 3D Studio Max, Truespace 4, Illustrator 8, and Painter 6. *evil grin* Of course this in not legal but hey, it works if you have a lot of spare time to let your computer d/l. I think a 5 hour d/l is better than paying $600 for Photoshop 5.5. This may be lame but atleast I'm not paying outrageous prices for software. And i'm sure that some of you guys have done the same thing without knowing it, or while knowing what your doing. I know tons of people who have Photoshop, more than half of them didn't pay for it. =)

Ahem!
They git your IP then they phone in to your ISP and git all dee info there. So...
pretty dangerous. I'd keep away from it.
But @#*%&*(&$! $7500 for a piece 'o software?! My computer isn't even worth 1/3 of that price!

Oh well, what are the odds of that? heh. Anywayz, yeah that is pretty outrageous for a peice of software. There is better software for cheaper prices though....personally I think he got ripped off. I would NEVER! by anything from my local retailer, online stuff is much cheaper.

Sorry for the delay, thank you for all your feedback. I'm interested mostly in 3d computer animation. I know that certain programs are better for specific tasks. For example: I've heard Maya is good for modeling, and I've heard Lightwave is good for animating. What do you think? What programs are best for what?

Maya is absolutely not the best solution when it comes to modelling. 3D Studio MAX is the best when it comes to texturing and modelling. But Maya is the best choice if you want to animate using expressions, IK/FK
or setting up your own animatable parameters. It's still better than MAX with NURBS, but with MAX3's new features, you don't want to use NURBS...
Mail me if you want further help...
http://go.to/penk

Ya ya... 3D Studio Max is what alot of movies use...
Armageddon
Soilder
Lost in Space

can't think of any others right now...

Softimage is also pretty good I think. My friend can do some amazing stuff with it.
You can get cheap stuff like Ray's Dream Studio and others, I know metacreations has some demos laying around there site http://www.metacreations.com
There you can play with a (pretty horrible) animation prog to see if you like it. Or else you can pay money to go and take basic classes at trade shows for 3d studio max. I am taking a some CPU Modeling classes at my school and it has been pretty fun, although I am using a Mac G3 but thats okay, and Infini-D (BLAH) anyways.... There is some cheaper stuff..... but........................... Pixar uses RenderMan software but that costs like, 20,000 us $ !!!! =)

Mainly, Softimage 3D is used for feature film, but Maya is taking over. Max is also often used, but it's focused on the game industry. If you want to learn animation, learn MAX. At least to start with. Maya and AVID's upcoming package Sumatra is really not for "newbies".
Imdaking says that Pixar uses Renderman...which is not really true...
Renderman is a true raytracer, (does radiosity ...)
which Pixar created. They do use it, but it's for raytracing only. They mainly use Softimage and Maya for modelling and animation now, but I think they'll convert to Sumatra. If you want to work with SFX I think Houdini is a good choice.

Both Softimage's raytracer Mental Ray and Pixar's Renderman are available to 3D Studio MAX as well...You can get an early version of Renderman called BMRT 2.4
http://go.to/penk

Don't forget about LightWave, it's probably used more extensively in tv/film work than Max, though Max has a stronger hold in the games market. Plus LightWave [6] is almost out, woohoo :-) For anyone looking for a <B>good, legal</B> piece of 3D software to learn on check out Inspire 3D by Newtek. It's basically LightWave's littel brother, lots of the same features at a <B>much</B> cheaper price (about $350 on the net). More info at http://www.newtek.com/products/frameset_inspire.html if anyone is interested, and feel free to ask me any questions about it that you might have.

Though Maya kicks ass, it's too expensive for personal use. AND you'll need a cpu as big as oprah's ass
When it comes to 3d modeling, I'd pick lightwave over 3dstudio, cause it's works a lot more efficient than MAX.
MAX and lightwave are both used a lot in movies so I won't make you pick based on that. Unless you work for a huge company who can afford that oprah-sized cpu, I'd pick Lightwave